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Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle
| screenplay = | story = Chris McKenna | based_on = | starring = | music = Henry Jackman | cinematography = Gyula Pados | editing = | studio = * Matt Tolmach Productions * Seven Bucks Productions * Radar Pictures }} | distributor = Sony Pictures Releasing | released = | runtime = 119 minutes | country = United States | language = English | budget = $90–150 million | gross = $962.1 million }} 'Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle' is a 2017 American fantasy adventure comedy film directed by Jake Kasdan, co-written by Chris McKenna, Erik Sommers, Scott Rosenberg, and Jeff Pinkner, and starring Dwayne Johnson, Jack Black, Kevin Hart, Karen Gillan, Nick Jonas, and Bobby Cannavale. It is the third installment of the [[Jumanji (franchise)|''Jumanji franchise]], after Zathura: A Space Adventure (2005) and a direct sequel to Jumanji (1995), based on the 1981 children's book of the same name by Chris Van Allsburg. The story focuses on a group of teenagers who come across Jumanji—now transformed into a video game—twenty-one years after the events of 1995. They find themselves trapped in the game as a set of avatars, seeking to complete a quest alongside another player who has been trapped since 1996. Principal photography began in Honolulu in September 2016 and ended in Atlanta in December, with the film containing notable references to the first film as a tribute to its lead actor Robin Williams. Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle premiered at the Grand Rex in Paris on December 5, 2017, and was theatrically released in the United States on December 20, both in RealD 3D and IMAX formats by Sony Pictures Releasing under its Columbia Pictures label. The film received generally positive reviews from critics, who called it a "pleasant surprise" and praised the cast. The film grossed over $962 million worldwide, becoming the fifth-highest-grossing film of 2017. A sequel to Welcome to the Jungle, titled Jumanji: The Next Level, was released on December 13, 2019 in the United States. Plot In Brantford, New Hampshire, in 1996, teenager Alex Vreeke finds Jumanji board game on a beach one year earlier. Uninterested, Alex sets it aside, but finds it transformed into a video game cartridge after being entranced by the game's drum beats later that night. Opting to play the game, he finds himself sucked inside upon choosing a character. His disappearance results in his family's house to become known as 'Freak house' also due to its neglected appearance. Twenty years later, in 2016, four Brantford High School students - Martha Kaply, Bethany Walker, Spencer Gilpin and Anthony "Fridge" Johnson - are sent to clean up the school's basement as detention for their behaviour. While serving it, Fridge discovers Alex's discarded video-game system, which he and Spencer decide to play, encouraging the girls to join them. While picking playable characters, they are unable to select the first one, instead choosing the other four. Upon starting the game, each is sucked into Jumanji, landing within a jungle in the forms of their chosen game avatars - Spencer as muscular explorer and archaeologist Dr. Smolder Bravestone; Fridge as diminutive zoologist Franklin Finbar; Martha as commando and martial arts expert Ruby Roundhouse; and Bethany as male doctor of cartography and palaeontology Professor Shelly Oberon. While coming to terms with their situation, the group each find themselves with three marks denoting lives on their arms, with Bethany losing her first after being eaten by a hippopotamus. Spencer deduces that if they lose all three, they will die in real life. The group encounter non-player character Nigel Billingsley, the game's guide, who provides them with the game's narrative and their characters' backstories. The group learn that their goal is to end a curse on Jumanji, brought about by corrupt archaeologist Professor Van Pelt, after stealing a magic jewel called "the Jaguar's Eye" from its shrine, gaining control of all the jungle's animals. Nigel hands Spencer the jewel, after stealing it from Van Pelt, instructing the group to return it to a statue at the shrine and call out "Jumanji", in order to "lift the curse" and leave the game, before driving off. While coping with their avatars, their "weaknesses" and Van Pelt's men, the group encounter Alex operating the fifth avatar - pilot Jefferson McDonough - who takes them to a jungle house built by Alan Parrish, the game's previous player. Upon realising his identity, all are equally shocked upon learning how long he has been trapped in the game, Alex having believed himself to have been trapped for merely months. With a common goal, the group vow to help Alex return home with them. Dealing with further problems while heading for the shrine, the group co-ordinate to overcome the challenges given by the game, eventually reaching the shrine, where Van Pelt has them surrounded with a pack of jaguars and his own men. Working together, while the others act as distractions, Spencer and Martha outmaneuver Van Pelt with the game's mechanics, returning the jewel to the statue. Upon uttering the game's name together, the group destroy Van Pelt and return home. Returning to the school basement, the group find Alex is not with them, but are confused after leaving school to find the formerly dilapidated Vreeke home is now restored and decorated for a Christmas family gathering. The group soon find themselves greeted by Alex, now an adult, who explains he returned to 1996, thus allowing him to lead a married life with children, with one of the children named after Bethany, who saved Alex's life in the game. The four students become firm friends after their experiences in the game, with Spencer starting a relationship with Martha. When the group hear the drumbeats of Jumanji coming from the game cartridge, Fridge crushes it with a bowling ball to prevent anyone else from playing it. Cast * Dwayne Johnson as Spencer Gilpin / Dr. Xander "Smolder" Bravestone: An intelligent, but unconfident and neurotic high school student. In Jumanji, he is transformed into a strong, confident archaeologist and explorer. ** Alex Wolff as Spencer in the real world. * Kevin Hart as Anthony "Fridge" Johnson / Franklin "Mouse" Finbar: A high school football player whose friendship with Spencer has deteriorated due to their different social statuses. In Jumanji, he is transformed into a diminutive, weak, slow zoologist and weapons carrier. ** Ser'Darius Blain as Fridge in the real world. * Jack Black as Bethany Walker / Professor Sheldon "Shelly" Oberon: A popular and vain high school student. In Jumanji, she is transformed into an overweight, male cartographer and expert in many scientific fields. ** Madison Iseman as Bethany in the real world. * Karen Gillan as Martha Kaply / Ruby Roundhouse: A quiet and shy high school student with a cynical intellect. In Jumanji, she is transformed into a scantily-clad martial artist. ** Morgan Turner as Martha in the real world. * Nick Jonas as Alex Vreeke / Jefferson "Seaplane" McDonough: A teenager who has been trapped in Jumanji for twenty years. In Jumanji, he is transformed into an aircraft pilot. ** Mason Guccione (credited as Gamer) as the teenage Alex in the real world. ** Colin Hanks as the adult Alex in the real world. Hanks was uncredited for the role. * Bobby Cannavale as Van Pelt: An NPC and the main antagonist of Jumanji, presented as a corrupt archaeologist and former partner of Bravestone's. The character is a reimagined version of the antagonist of the same name from the 1995 film. * Rhys Darby as Nigel Billingsley: An NPC in Jumanji who serves as the primary guide for its players. Additionally, Marin Hinkle plays Spencer's mother, Tracey Bonner plays Fridge's mother, and Natasha Charles Packer plays Bethany's mother. Appearing as staff members of Brantford High School are Marc Evan Jackson as Principal Bentley, Carlease Burke as history teacher Miss Mathers, Missi Pyle as gym teacher Coach Web, and Maribeth Monroe as Bethany's English teacher. Kat Altman portrays Bethany's friend Lucinda and Michael Shacket portrays Spencer's friend Fussfeld. William Tokarsky and Rohan Chand appear as a food vendor and a boy, respectively, in the video game's marketplace. Alex's father is played by Sean Buxton in 1996 (credited as "Jogger") and an uncredited Tim Matheson in the present day. Production Development Plans for a Jumanji sequel were put ahead by Sony Pictures Entertainment in the late 1990s. As reported by Ain't It Cool News, a stand-alone sequel entitled Jumanji 2 was in development in 1999. The plot of the story involved John Cooper, the President of the United States, buying Jumanji from an old antique store in Europe and bringing it to the White House to play it with his children (one of whom, Butch, just wants a dad not a President for a father). Cooper then gets sucked into the world of Jumanji, paving the way for his evil Vice President, who was supposed to be played by Steve Buscemi, to rise to power as Cooper's replacement. Inside the game, Cooper would have teamed up with hybrid animals, which were going to be animated with CGI; Sony Pictures Consumer Products executive VP of worldwide consumer products Peter Dang revealed prototype drawings of animals that may have appeared in the film, all designed by Ken Ralston, who served as visual effects supervisor in the original film and was planned to make his directorial debut with Jumanji 2, slated for a Christmas 2000 release date. However, Ralston eventually stepped down and the project stalled, albeit the DVD commentary of the first film still references a sequel directed by Ralston.Jumanji DVD commentary (dvd). Sony Pictures Home Entertainment In July 2012, rumors circulated that a remake of Jumanji was in development. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Columbia Pictures president Doug Belgrad said: "We're going to try and reimagine Jumanji and update it for the present." On August 1, 2012, it was confirmed that Matthew Tolmach would produce the new version with William Teitler (who produced the original film). In August 2015, Sony Pictures Entertainment announced that the film was scheduled for release on December 25, 2016. Online reception to the news was negative, with some saying that the announcement came too soon after the August 2014 death of Robin Williams (who played Alan Parrish in the original film). The announcement was criticized by Bradley Pierce (who played Peter Shepherd in Jumanji) and by E! News, which called the remake "unnecessary and kind of insulting". On October 23, 2015, Scott Rosenberg was hired to rewrite the script for the film, whose production was a high priority for the studio. On January 14, 2016, Deadline Hollywood reported that Jake Kasdan had been hired to direct the film from a script by Rosenberg and Jeff Pinkner based on a draft by original writers Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers. In March 2017, during CinemaCon, it was announced that the film's complete title was Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle. Its plot involved teenagers cleaning out a school's basement who find a vintage video-game version of Jumanji and are sucked into the first film's jungle setting. Although fans debated whether the film was a sequel or a reboot, the second trailer (released on September 20, 2017) indicated that the sequel is set 21 years after the first. Dwayne Johnson noted that the film was inspired by classic video games of the 1990s. Casting On April 15, Variety reported that Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart were in early talks to star in the film (although both actors had other projects). Later in the month, Johnson confirmed his casting on Instagram. In July, it was reported that Nick Jonas had joined the film's cast with Johnson, Hart, and Jack Black. The following month, Johnson said that the film would not be a reboot but a continuation of the 1995 film; Karen Gillan was announced as part of the cast. On September 20, Ser'Darius Blain was cast as Anthony "Fridge" Johnson and Madison Iseman as Bethany Walker. Two days later, Rhys Darby was cast as Nigel Billingsley, Morgan Turner as Martha Kaply, and Alex Wolff as Spencer Gilpin. In November 2016, Bobby Cannavale announced his casting in the film, and in December 2016, Tim Matheson joined the cast as Old Man Vreeke. Tom Holland and Shailene Woodley were originally cast as Jefferson "Seaplane" McDonough and Ruby Roundhouse respectively, but they had to drop out of the film due to scheduling conflicts with other projects, so Karen Gillan and Nick Jonas were cast in their places. Filming Principal photography began on September 19, 2016, in Honolulu, Hawaii, primarily at the Kualoa Ranch nature reserve. The film wrapped on December 8 in Atlanta, Georgia. Music James Newton Howard was originally signed to compose the film's score, he was replaced by Henry Jackman when the film's release date was postponed six months. The soundtrack was released digitally on 15 December 2017 by Sony Masterworks. Visual effects The visual effects are provided by Iloura and Supervised by Glenn Melenhorst with help from Moving Picture Company, Ollin VFX and Rodeo FX. Release In August 2015, Sony gave the film a release date of December 25, 2016. Since filming did not begin until September 2016, the release was pushed back to July 28 and then to December 20, 2017. On November 29, 2017, it was announced that Amazon Prime members in the United States would have early access to tickets for a December 8 screening of the film at select Regal, National Amusements, ArcLight Cinemas and AMC theaters. The screenings sold out at 1,200 theaters and earned $1.9 million. The film was released on IMAX 2D on January 12, 2018. In India, the film was released in English, Tamil, Hindi & Telugu languages on December 20, 2017, while in China, the film was released on December 29, 2017. Media Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle was released on Digital HD on March 6, 2018, and on DVD, Blu-ray, and 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray on March 20, although the film was still in theaters. The Blu-ray and digital versions include two additional featurettes: "Surviving the Jungle: Spectacular Stunts!" and "Book to Board Game to Big Screen & Beyond! Celebrating The Legacy of Jumanji". Reception Box office Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle grossed $404.6 million in the United States and Canada and $557.6 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $962.1 million. On April 10, 2018, the film passed Spider-Man ($403.7 million) to become Sony's highest-grossing film domestically. Deadline Hollywood calculated its net profit as $305.7 million when factoring all expenses and revenues, making it 2017's fourth-most-profitable release. In the U.S. and Canada, the film was released on December 20, 2017, with The Greatest Showman and was projected to gross about $60 million from 3,765 theaters in its six-day opening weekend; the studio predicted a $45 million debut. It earned $7.2 million on its first day and $7.6 million on its second day. Over the three-day weekend, the film grossed $36.2 million (for a six-day total of $71.9 million), finishing second at the box office behind Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Its weekend-only earnings increased to $50.1 million during its second weekend, again finishing in second place at the box office. The 38.4 percent weekend-to-weekend increase was the fourth-largest for a film playing in over 3,000 theaters; The Greatest Showman set the record for best hold the same weekend. The film passed Star Wars: The Last Jedi for the top spot the following weekend, declining 28.1 percent to $36 million, and finished first again the following week with $28.1 million (and a total of $35.2 million over the four-day MLK weekend). Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle remained atop the box office for its third weekend, earning $19.5 million. It again topped the box office for a fourth consecutive week (its sixth week overall in theatres) with $19.5 million, topping new releases 12 Strong and Den of Thieves. The film continued to do well the following week, dropping 16 percent (to $16.1 million) and finishing second to Maze Runner: The Death Cure, before regaining the top spot for a fifth time the following weekend with $10.9 million. Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle concluded 2017 as the fifth highest-grossing film of the year worldwide. Critical response On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 76% based on 227 reviews, and an average rating of 6.2/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle uses a charming cast and a humorous twist to offer an undemanding yet solidly entertaining update on its source material." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 58 out of 100, based on 44 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale, while those at PostTrak gave it an 84% positive score. Dave White of TheWrap praised the cast and called the film a pleasant surprise: "Jumanji: Welcome to The Jungle is the Christmas tentpole release that aims to please and succeeds, a funny family entertainment product that subverts more expectations than it was obligated to contractually". Peter Travers of Rolling Stone writes "enough star power and comic zest to deliver a fun time at the movies ... barely" and praises the cast, particularly Jack Black as hilarious and for finding the "vulnerable heart" of the character. Travers gives the film 2.5 stars out of 4. Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian newspaper gives the film 3 out of 5 stars. Bradshaw praises Johnson for his "endearing performance" and calls it an "amiable effort" expects that will go down well on home viewings. David Ehrlich of IndieWire gave the film a C grade, calling it unnecessary but mildly amusing: "Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle is further proof that even the stalest whiff of brand recognition has become preferable to originality. Only part of the blame for that belongs to the studios but after cannibalizing themselves for much of the last 20 years, Hollywood has clearly eaten their way down to the crumbs". For Variety, Owen Gleiberman wrote: "Excitement! Suspense! Childlike innocence! Ingeniously staged action set pieces! These are a few of the things you will not find, anywhere, in Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle ... It's supposed to be a board game come to life but really, it's just a bored game." Accolades Video games A mobile game titled Jumanji: The Mobile Game, developed by Idiocracy Games and published by NHN Entertainment, was released for Android and iOS on December 14, 2017. The game was removed from Google Play and App Store on May 2, 2018, and its service ended on May 24, 2018. A virtual reality experience titled Jumanji: The VR Adventure, developed by MWM Immersive and published by Sony Pictures Virtual Reality, was released on Steam for HTC Vive on January 17, 2018. Although it was announced that the experience would be released on Oculus Rift and PlayStation VR, the releases were canceled, as the game was heavily criticized for its poor graphics and hardware performance. It was delisted from Steam on February 9, 2018. A video game titled Jumanji: The Video Game, developed by Funsolve and published by Outright Games, was released on November 8, 2019 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and Microsoft Windows. It is based on Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle and Jumanji: The Next Level. Sequel Dwayne Johnson, Jack Black, and Nick Jonas discussed the plot of the next Jumanji film (referred to as Jumanji 3) in interviews, including the possibility of the film exploring the origins of the game. According to Karen Gillan, the alternate ending of Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle would have left the door open for another installment. In February 2018, it was announced that Kasdan would direct the sequel, with Rosenberg and Pinkner again writing the script and Johnson, Hart, Black, Gillan and Jonas reprising their roles. Filming began in January 2019. The film is slated to be released December 13, 2019. In January 2019, it was announced that Awkwafina, Danny DeVito and Danny Glover had joined the cast of the film. On February 22, 2019, Black confirmed the new film as being as a fourth Jumanji film because of Zathura: A Space Adventure (2005) serving as the second film and sharing continuity with the other films of the series, with Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle serving as the third film. References External links * * Official site – Sony Pictures Category:2010s fantasy adventure films Category:2010s science fiction comedy films Category:2010s fantasy-comedy films Category:2010s sequel films Category:2017 3D films Category:2017 films Category:Alternate timeline films Category:American 3D films Category:IMAX films Category:American action adventure films Category:American adventure comedy films Category:American fantasy adventure films Category:American fantasy-comedy films Category:American films Category:American high school films Category:American sequel films Category:American teen films Category:Columbia Pictures films Category:Cross-dressing in film Category:English-language films Category:Films about curses Category:Films about friendship Category:Films about time travel Category:Films about video games Category:Films based on children's books Category:Films based on works by Chris Van Allsburg Category:Films directed by Jake Kasdan Category:Films produced by Matt Tolmach Category:Films scored by Henry Jackman Category:Films set in 1996 Category:Films set in 2016 Category:Films set in New Hampshire Category:Films shot in Atlanta Category:Films shot in Hawaii Category:Films with screenplays by Scott Rosenberg Category:Films with screenplays by Chris McKenna Category:Films with screenplays by Erik Sommers Category:Jumanji Category:Jungle adventure films Category:Seven Bucks Productions films Category:2010s teen fantasy films Category:Films about virtual reality Category:2010s adventure comedy films Category:2010s adventure films Category:2010s comedy science fiction films Category:2010s fantasy films Category:Teen fantasy films Category:Virtual reality in fiction